Investigations of particle velocities in a 200-mm diameter conical cylindrical spouted bed were carried out. A direct measurement approach, coupled optical-fibre endoscope with high-speed photography, was used to determine the local velocity of glass bead and corn at various spouting velocities. The results showed that the radial particle velocity profiles when spouting of corns are similar to glass beads. The changes of particle velocities with increasing spouting gas velocity were more remarkable in the spout and fountain regions than in the annulus. The velocity of the glass beads is higher than the corns in the spout region, while they appear a reverse trend in the fountain region and annulus region at the same spouting velocity.